By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Things got a little sloppy at times for Hayden girls basketball Tuesday night, but the Wildcats achieved their most important objective, snapping a brief two-game losing streak with a 53-37 home win over Emporia.
Sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein scored a game-high 14 points in Tuesday's 53-37 Hayden win over Emporia. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Now 7-2 on the season, Hayden begin defense of its Centennial League championship with Tuesday's win, going wire to wire for the Wildcats' second win of the season over the 4-5 Spartans.
"We played with good effort tonight,'' Hayden coach Carvel Reynoldson said. "We defnitely need to clean some stuff up and become a better team, but the effort was there.''
The Wildcats didn't have a great shooting night -- 37.9 percent from the field and 4 of 13 from the free throw line -- and turned the ball over 19 times.
But Hayden pestered the Spartans into 31.7 percent shooting and 24 turnovers.
Hayden, which was coming off a 38-36 heartbreaker at Shawnee Heights last Friday, scored the first four points and went up 8-2 and 10-3 before ending the opening quarter with a 10-5 lead.
The Wildcats outscored the Spartans 13-6 in the second quarter and led by as many as 14 before taking a 23-11 advantage to the locker room at halftime.
Hayden continued to pull away in the third quarter, opening up a 39-21 cushion, and cruised over the final eight minutes.
Sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein scored a game-high 14 points to lead the Wildcats while sophomore Blakely Walter came off the bench to add 10 points as nine Hayden players cracked the scoring column.
Junior Kaylee DeWitt led Emporia with 13 points while sophomore Maycee Davis added 9 points.
Hayden will continue Centennial League play on Friday, going on the road to face Washburn Rural.
HAYDEN GIRLS 53, EMPORIA 37
Emporia 5 6 10 16 -- 37
Hayden 10 13 16 14 -- 53
Emporia (4-5, 0-1) – Aguirre 2-9 0-2 4, Hines 1-2 0-0 3, Wiltz 2-11 2-7 6, DeWitt 5-12 2-2 13, Davis 2-6 5-10 9, Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Hess 1-1 0-0 2, B'Hymer 0-0 0-0 0, Scobee 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-41 9-19 37.
Hayden (7-2, 1-0) – Schmidtlein 6-20 1-2 14, Foster 1-1 1-2 4, Huscher 0-1 1-2 1, Borjon 2-8 0-0 5, Watts 3-5 0-0 6, Walter 4-10 0-2 10, Wichman 1-4 0-0 2, Mitchell 3-6 0-3 6, Wrench 0-0 0-0 0, Connell 2-3 1-2 5, Slyter 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-58 4-13 53.
3-point goals – Emporia 2 (Hines, DeWitt), Hayden 5 (Walter 2, Schmidtlein, Foster, Borjon). Total fouls – Emporia 15, Hayden 16. Fouled out – none. Technical foul -- none.
